Lou Sullivan diary, 1972

Lou Sullivan's diary for 1972, detailing his life as a 21-year-old administrative assistant, his complex relationship with his long-term boyfriend, and his conflicts with his family about living with his boyfriend out of wedlock. Sullivan and his boyfriend were beginning to explore nonmonogamy, and Sullivan was trying to balance his confident, cruisey way of approaching men with their expectations of him as a "woman." He began a relationship with a hustler, Beau, whose apparent criminal history appealed to his fantasies about characters from Jean Genet. Sullivan continued to struggle with his relationship, gender, and sexuality in this year, increasingly aware of his gay identity but believing that living in this identity was impossible. Louis Graydon Sullivan (1951-1991) was a gay trans man from Milwaukee, WI who lived much of his adult life in San Francisco. A diarist, amateur historian, and administrative assistant, Sullivan is best known for the detailed and thoughtful diary he kept from childhood until his death from AIDS at age 39.

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Item Information:

Identifier: 1v53jx37p
Collection: Lou Sullivan Collection
Institution: GLBT Historical Society
Creator(s): Sullivan, Lou
Date Created: 1972
Dates Covered: 1972
Genre: Diaries
Places: Wisconsin > Milwaukee County > City of Milwaukee > Milwaukee
Topic(s): Administrative assistants
Diaries
Gay men
Trans men
Resource Type: Text
Analog Format: Diary
Digital Format: PDF file, 141 MB
Language: English
Rights: In copyright
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